1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a sublimating card printing apparatus and a sublimating card printing method, and more particularly, to a thermal transfer type card printer which prints a color image over a surface of a printing medium of a card type made of a plastic material.
2. Description of the Background Art
A thermal transfer type card printer of the type mentioned above presses a thermal transfer head against a platen with an ink ribbon and a card-shaped printing medium interposed therebetween. This combination thereby thermally transfers a variety of dyes coated on the ink ribbon onto a surface of the card-shaped printing medium, in a manner based on information on a predetermined color image to print the color image over the surface of the card-shaped printing medium.
In recent years, card-shaped printing media having such color images printed thereon have been widely used as magnetic cards, IC (Integrated Circuit) cards, also referred to in the art as "smart cards", and cards provided with both features (hereinafter called the "magnetic IC card"), which have a variety of information recorded therein. For example, they are used as a so-called ID (identification) card for use in identification or the like of a person who enters or exits, a credit card for conducting a credit account for a financial institution such as a bank, a post office or the like, and so on.
These magnetic cards, IC cards and magnetic IC cards have been standardized in terms of their outer dimensions, and the positions at which a magnetic stripe, an IC memory, or both are placed or formed thereon, in accordance with the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) standard and the JIS (Japan Industrial Standard) standard.
For the magnetic IC card, the ISO standard specifies that a magnetic stripe having a predetermined width is formed along an edge in a longitudinal direction on one side of a card-shaped printing medium, and an IC memory is embedded at a predetermined position in a front end portion of the other side. The JIS standard, on the other hand, specifies that a magnetic stripe having a predetermined width is formed along an edge in a longitudinal direction on one side of a card-shaped printing medium, and an IC memory is embedded at a predetermined position in a front end portion of that same side.
Conventional card printers provide a card rotating means along a transport path of a card material, and reverse the position of a card by rotating the card rotating means, thereafter printing a predetermined image and information on the card. However, complications are introduced by the fact that the magnetic IC card has an IC memory recording/reproducing means different from a magnetic recording/reproducing means. In a magnetic IC card, failure may occur at the time of recording to an IC memory in addition to the time of magnetically recording. The transport path therefore becomes longer if the IC memory recording/reproducing means and a card tray are set linearly along the transport path, having a larger size than desired. It would therefore be desirable to provide a single apparatus capable of supporting a sequence of steps involving printing a color image on one or the other side (or both sides) of such a magnetic IC card and recording predetermined information on either or both of a magnetic stripe and an IC memory provided on one or the other side (or both) as required while providing such functionality within a compact space.